


the crossover condition

by lovevalley45



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Gen, Missing Scene, Post-3x10, Post-Crisis On Earth-X Crossover Event (CW DC TV Universe)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-10
Updated: 2019-12-10
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:28:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21747526
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lovevalley45/pseuds/lovevalley45
Summary: "I kind of promised our crew they'd never have to do another crossover."or, one of the toughest decisions sara lance had to make as captain
Relationships: Sara Lance & Ray Palmer
Comments: 4
Kudos: 43





	the crossover condition

**Author's Note:**

> when i heard that line i was like 'ha ha ha OH' so here's me squeezing that angst potential
> 
> also this fic was a lot of firsts for me so yeehaw lads\
> 
> no big spoilers for CoIE just u know. the line.

Sara’s had to make many tough decisions as captain. It’s why she was chosen, really.

She remembered the incident clearly - her arguing with Rex Tyler about whether to save Ray and Amaya or not. It seems so long ago now, that moment when Martin declared she spoke for them.

“I have watched her become the beating heart and steady hand of this team,” he’d said. “She is the proper person to lead us.”

Her one job was not to lead them, though. It was to keep them safe. And with Earth-X, she’d failed.

Sara looked at the empty glass in her hand. Martin’s loss and Jax’s departure had left the ship feeling… dead, for lack of a better word. It had hit them all hard, but for her it felt like things would never be the same.

He’d always believed in her, even when times got tough. He could be a little bit of a pain in the ass, but Martin Stein had been with the team from the beginning.

Now it was only her, Ray, and Mick left, with Jax off trying to handle his own feelings. She had been thinking about that a lot lately. The team was never static, but losing more people, more family was unbearable.

Sara looked around the parlour. Did Rip even know he was gone? She’d never asked Ava, but he probably didn’t. 

Maybe she was a little resentful. It was supposed to just be a wedding, one that she had been more or less invited to as a formality. Team Arrow was her homebase, not the Flash and his crew. But Martin and Jax knew Barry well.

When Barry and Oliver cried out for help, they were expected to drop what they were doing to assist. Like they didn’t have their own job protecting the timeline. It was meaner than a hero should be, more selfish, but the Legends protected their own.

Ray was in the lab when she found him, tinkering with the anti-nanite gun. Sara had caught him offguard, given by the way he nearly jumped a foot when she said, “Hey.”

“Sara.” He smiled. “What’s- what’s up?”

She leaned against his workstation, crossing her arms. “I’m just- thinking about things.” With a sigh, she clarified, “About Martin and the whole crisis thing.”

He put the gun down. “Yeah. It’s weird, isn’t it?”

Sara nodded. “When was the last time Barry and Oliver helped us with anything?”

Ray had to think about it. “I don’t know. Why?”

“With the whole invasion thing last year, and then the Nazis this year, I- I don’t know. It feels like it’s not worth it,” she explained. “They barely talk to us when we’re not helping out with some big bad.”

“It does feel a little one-sided sometimes,” he muttered. “Are you thinking we should stop helping them?”

It didn’t sound great when he said it like that, but Sara shrugged. “Losing Martin has cleared things up a little.” She uncrossed her arms. “I’m going to call a team meeting about it.”

She missed the way Ray watched her walk away with a concerned expression, but she felt his eyes on her. If she was going to make this decision, she wasn’t going to decide without the team.

* * *

Ten minutes later, the team was more or less gathered on the bridge. It was a familiar sight. Mick leaned against the doorway to the parlour with a beer, Nate and Amaya standing together-but-not near the console, Behrad sitting on the steps. Sara stood beside Ray, looking around at her team. The absence of both halves of Firestorm was still odd to her, and she nearly asked where they were.

“After the Earth-X incident, some things about our involvement with the other heroes of the multiverse have come into a different light,” Sara started. “Back when we first started as a team, we had more of a connection to Barry and Oliver than we do now.” Which was, to translate, that the ties that binded them seemed to loosen the longer they were away. “I don’t want to take a risk again and lose another Legend, but I know they’ll ask for our help again. Should we take that chance?”

She had learned a few lessons on her own from her time as captain. Rip had taught her some, but she had figured this one out on her own. The Legends were not just a team, they were a family. And some choices couldn’t just be made by one person.

Mick was the first to speak up, eloquent as always. “Not my problem,” he said. “If they get themselves in trouble, they can get themselves out.”

“Yeah,” Nate agreed. “We have our own problems to deal with.”

“But the Flash and the Arrow are our allies,” Amaya pointed out. “Shouldn’t we help them for whenever we get in trouble?”

Behrad stood up, crossing his arms. “And when was the last time we ever had a problem they could fix?”

Sara nodded. “Yeah, they don’t exactly have a timeship to help out,” she said. 

“What about the people who can’t fight back?” Amaya asked. “Are we just going to stand by during chaos?”

“Yeah, that’s a good point,” Behrad muttered. “We might be safe on the Waverider, but the 14 million people in Central City couldn’t exactly fly away from the Nazi invasion.” 

Tough decisions were a part of being captain. And those decisions got tougher when the room was divided. 

“But they can call in Supergirl,” Ray was saying. “Their teams are large enough to fight, they don’t just have the two of them.”

“We only came in during the final battle,” Nate added. “Well, half of us did.”

“I’m not getting locked up again,” Mick declared. 

Sara finally interrupted them. “Hey! We’re making this decision as a group. I’m not going to make you guys fight if you really don’t want to, but I won’t force you to sit back.” She stood up straighter. “Now, are we going to say yes or no the next time they ask us for help?”

“No,” Mick said.

Nate and Ray said the same, but Behrad looked a little unsure before contributing his, “Yes.” Amaya nodded in agreement.

“Okay,” Sara said. “I think the ‘no’s have it.”

She couldn’t help but think about how Jax would have said ‘yes’, how he would have always said ‘yes’. But the team is split 3:2, and with no Jax to make it a tie, the decision is clear.

“When that time comes around, we don’t have to say ‘no’,” she added. “But for the time being, it’s what we’re going with. Next time they’re in trouble, Barry and Oliver are on their own.”

* * *

It was another year before that time came around again, just like clockwork? But Amaya had gone back to Zambesi with a lookalike and a warlock to fill the space. The team is too busy catching the Dybuuk or breaking time to notice the alert, yet the world managed to survive without them.

* * *

And now, Sara tells the Monitor about her promise. She remembers how Ray went to hell, how Nate nearly died, and a memory that doesn’t seem quite right about someone crying over his body.  The heroes hadn’t answered their call over just a simple commercial, and there they made a more final decision. 

Even if Sara and Ray didn’t have much of a choice, the rest of the team sure did. They’d stay safe during the Crisis in the temporal zone, going on with their job.

Somehow, that decision didn’t seem so tough anymore. 

**Author's Note:**

> hey if u enjoyed this fic i'd love for ya to leave a comment or a kudo if ur heart desires
> 
> come hmu at lovevalley45 on tumblr to read my hilarious liveblogs or watch my descent in madness over this show!


End file.
